Guide
How to send from your custom domain in Gmail
Keep Gmail as your inbox and send from [email protected], without Google Workspace, “Send mail as”, or SMTP settings. Setup takes about fifteen minutes.
How it works
Your domain’s mail is forwarded into Gmail. Each forwarded email carries a reply address on your domain, so when you hit Reply, your answer goes through ForwardMailTo and out from your domain address. New emails use the same idea: you write to a special address on your domain and we send the message from your address. Nothing changes inside Gmail, so it works in Gmail on the web and in the Gmail apps.
Step 1: Add and verify your domain
Create a free account, add your domain, and add the MX, TXT, and DKIM records the setup wizard shows you. If your domain’s mail currently goes somewhere else, remove the old MX records so mail comes to the new ones. The domain setup guide walks through each record.
Step 2: Forward an address to Gmail
Create an address like [email protected] and set its destination to your Gmail address. Send it a test from another account to check it arrives. If you used addresses on another service, create the same ones here first so nothing is missed.
Step 3: Reply from Gmail
Hit Reply on a forwarded email and write as usual. Keep the To address as it is. The recipient sees your domain address, not your Gmail address.
Step 4: Start a new email
- In your dashboard, open your domain’s Sending & Replies page and click Write a new email.
- Pick the address to send from, type who it’s for, and click Open in Gmail.
- Gmail opens a new email with the To field filled in. Write and send as usual.
Gmail remembers the person after the first time, so next time just start typing their name. People who have emailed you before already show up that way, as “Name (via yourdomain.com)”. When they reply, the conversation carries on like any forwarded email.
Good to know
- Send from the Gmail address your domain address forwards to. Mail from any other account isn’t sent.
- Each new email goes to one person. Cc and Bcc are ignored.
- Free includes one domain, 25 addresses and 30 new emails a month. Replies don’t count toward the 30. Pro has no monthly limit on new emails.
- Keep SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in place so your mail passes Gmail’s and Outlook’s checks.